Shams al-Ma'arif

Shams al-Ma'arif, also called Shams al-Ma'arif wa Lata'if al-'Awarif, is a grimoire focused on Arabic magic. It presents itself as a guide for attaining esoteric spirituality. The work forms part of a larger compilation titled Shams al-maʿārif al-kubrā, which is itself often referred to simply as "Shams al-Ma'arif." Though commonly credited to the 13th-century North African Sufi scholar Ahmad al-Buni, this attribution is contested, with scholars arguing it is pseudepigraphic.

The text's history is complex. Al-Buni, who died around 1225 CE, supposedly wrote it while living in the Central Maghreb (modern-day Algeria). However, doubts about his authorship have persisted. A different manuscript also called Shams al-Ma'arif, held in the National Library of Damascus, has sometimes been claimed as an authentic work by al-Buni focusing on cosmology, but this is not a widely established fact in mainstream scholarship. Al-Buni's undisputed writings, such as Manbaʿ uṣūl al-ḥikma, deal extensively with the esoteric properties of Arabic letters and talismanic magic, making the grimoire's content consistent with his authentic interests. Researcher Jean-Charles Coulon argues that the famous grimoire cannot be authentic because it contains anachronisms inconsistent with al-Buni's known works, placing it within a "Būnī tradition" of later authors working in his lineage, some of whose writings were falsely attributed to him. Al-Buni's reputation for esoteric magic was later amplified by the 15th-century Ottoman scholar Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Bistami, who wrote extensive commentaries on al-Buni's works, especially on creating amulets and talismans. This led to the creation of the expansive compilation Shams al-maʿārif al-kubrā, which includes the grimoire alongside other esoteric works by al-Bistami and authentic texts by al-Buni, circulating among Ottoman elite circles.

The book has faced significant criticism. Scholars like Ibn Taymiyya condemned it, labeling al-Buni a deluded devil worshipper. Despite this, the text persisted and is still read publicly and studied today. Some Sufi orders, such as the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order, have occasionally acknowledged its potential spiritual value for readers who understand it properly. After its first modern printing in Beirut in 1985, Saudi Arabia banned the book.